Higher judgements of learning for emotional words: processing fluency or memory beliefs?

Previous research has shown that emotionally-valenced words are given higher judgements of learning (JOLs) than are neutral words. The current study examined potential explanations for this emotional salience effect on JOLs. Experiment 1 replicated the basic emotionality/JOL effect. In Experiments 2A and 2B, we used pre-study JOLs and assessed memory beliefs qualitatively, finding that, on average, participants believed that positive and negative words were more memorable than neutral words. Experiment 3 utilised a lexical decision task, resulting in lower reaction times (RTs) for positive words than for neutral words, but equivalent RTs for negative and neutral words, suggesting that processing fluency may partially account for higher JOLs for positive words, but not for negative words. Finally, we conducted a series of moderation analyses in Experiment 4 which assessed the relative contributions of fluency and beliefs to JOLs by measuring both factors in the same participants, showing that RTs made no significant contribution to JOLs for either positive or negative words. Our findings suggest that although positive words may be more fluently processed than neutral words, memory beliefs are the primary factor underlying higher JOLs for both positive and negative words.

Reduced interference from memory testing: A postretrieval monitoring account.

Initial learning can interfere with subsequent learning (proactive interference [PI]), but recent work indicates initial testing can reduce PI. Here, we tested 2 alternative hypotheses of this effect: Does testing reduce PI by constraining retrieval to the target list, or by facilitating a postretrieval monitoring process? Participants first studied 4 lists of unrelated words. The study-only group performed a distractor task following each list, whereas the tested group recalled each list. After these initial lists, both groups studied and were tested on a final list. Replicating prior work, the tested group recalled more of the final list items and had fewer prior-list intrusions than the study-only group (i.e., initial testing reduced subsequent PI). To test the 2-alternative hypotheses, Experiment 1 used a modified recall test for the final list, whereby participants were asked to recall the final list of words and also report any items from prior lists that inadvertently came to mind. Contrary to the constrained retrieval hypothesis, initial testing did not reduce the number of prior list items that came to mind, but consistent with the postretrieval monitoring hypothesis, testing increased the likelihood that the intrusions would be correctly attributed to prior lists. Experiments 2 and 3 further tested the postretrieval monitoring hypothesis by testing the final list twice. According to the hypothesis, testing all of the lists should render prior testing nondiagnostic of list membership, thereby impairing retrieval monitoring in the test group and minimizing its ability to reduce PI. This prediction was confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Disadvantageous Deck Selection in the Iowa Gambling Task: The Effect of Cognitive Load.

Research has shown that cognitive load affects overall Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) performance, but it is unknown whether such load impacts the selection of the individual decks that correspond to gains or losses. Here, participants performed the IGT either in a full attention condition or while engaged in a number monitoring task to divide attention. Results showed that the full attention group was more aware of the magnitude of gains or losses for each draw (i.e., payoff awareness) than was the divided attention group. However, the divided attention group was more sensitive to the frequency of the losses (i.e., frequency awareness), as evidenced by their increased preference for Deck B, which is the large but infrequent loss deck. An analysis across blocks showed that the number monitoring group was consistently more aware of loss frequency, whereas the full attention group shifted between awareness of loss frequency and awareness of payoff amount. Furthermore, the full attention group was better able to weigh loss frequency and payoff amount when making deck selections. These findings support the notion that diminished cognitive resources may result in greater selection of Deck B, otherwise known as the prominent Deck B phenomenon.

Mental representations in fraction comparison.

In this study, we investigated the mental representations used in a fraction comparison task. Adults were asked to quickly and accurately pick the larger of two fractions presented on a computer screen and provide trial-by-trial reports of the types of strategies they used. We found that adults used a variety of strategies to compare fractions, ranging among just knowing the answer, using holistic knowledge of fractions to determine the answer, and using component-based procedures such as cross multiplication. Across all strategy types, regression analyses identified that reaction times were significantly predicted by numerical distance between fractions, indicating that the participants used a magnitude-based representation to compare the fraction magnitudes. In addition, a variant of the problem-size effect (e.g., Ashcraft, 1992) appeared, whereby reaction times were significantly predicted by the average cross product of the two fractions. This effect was primarily found for component-based strategies, indicating a role for strategy choice in the formation of mental representations of fractions.

Effects of emotion on associative recognition: valence and retention interval matter.

In two experiments, we examined the effects of emotional valence and arousal on associative binding. Participants studied negative, positive, and neutral word pairs, followed by an associative recognition test. In Experiment 1, with a short-delayed test, accuracy for intact pairs was equivalent across valences, whereas accuracy for rearranged pairs was lower for negative than for positive and neutral pairs. In Experiment 2, we tested participants after a one-week delay and found that accuracy was greater for intact negative than for intact neutral pairs, whereas rearranged pair accuracy was equivalent across valences. These results suggest that, although negative emotional valence impairs associative binding after a short delay, it may improve binding after a longer delay. The results also suggest that valence, as well as arousal, needs to be considered when examining the effects of emotion on associative memory.

Encoding modality can affect memory accuracy via retrieval orientation.

Research indicates that false memory is lower following visual than auditory study, potentially because visual information is more distinctive. In the present study we tested the extent to which retrieval orientation can cause a modality effect on memory accuracy. Participants studied unrelated words in different modalities, followed by criterial recollection tests that selectively oriented retrieval toward one study modality at a time. Memory errors were lower when oriented toward visual than toward auditory information, thereby generalizing the modality effect to an explicit source memory task. Moreover, these effects persisted independent of the test presentation modality, indicating that retrieval orientation overrode the potential cuing properties of the test stimulus. An independent manipulation check confirmed that visual recollections were subjectively experienced as more distinctive than auditory recollections. These results suggest that retrieval orientation is sufficient to cause a modality effect on memory accuracy by focusing monitoring processes on the recollection of studied features that are diagnostic of prior presentation.

Effects of distinctive encoding on source-based false recognition: further examination of recall-to-reject processes in aging and Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the use of distinctive materials at encoding on recall-to-reject monitoring processes in aging and Alzheimer disease (AD). BACKGROUND: AD patients, and to a lesser extent older adults, have shown an impaired ability to use recollection-based monitoring processes (eg, recall-to-reject) to avoid various types of false memories, such as source-based false recognition. METHOD: Younger adults, healthy older adults, and AD patients engaged in an incidental learning task, in which critical category exemplars were either accompanied by a distinctive picture or were presented as only words. Later, participants studied a series of categorized lists in which several typical exemplars were omitted and were then given a source memory test. RESULTS: Both older and younger adults made more accurate source attributions after picture encoding compared with word-only encoding, whereas AD patients did not exhibit this distinctiveness effect. CONCLUSIONS: These results extend those of previous studies showing that monitoring in older adults can be enhanced with distinctive encoding, and suggest that such monitoring processes in AD patients many be insensitive to distinctiveness.

Comparing source-based and gist-based false recognition in aging and Alzheimer's disease.

This study examined 2 factors contributing to false recognition of semantic associates: errors based on confusion of source and errors based on general similarity information or gist. The authors investigated these errors in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), age-matched control participants, and younger adults, focusing on each group's ability to use recollection of source information to suppress false recognition. The authors used a paradigm consisting of both deep and shallow incidental encoding tasks, followed by study of a series of categorized lists in which several typical exemplars were omitted. Results showed that healthy older adults were able to use recollection from the deep processing task to some extent but less than that used by younger adults. In contrast, false recognition in AD patients actually increased following the deep processing task, suggesting that they were unable to use recollection to oppose familiarity arising from incidental presentation.

The modality effect in false recognition: evidence for test-based monitoring.

False recognition in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm has been shown to be greater following auditory study than following visual study, but there are competing explanations for this effect. We generalized this phenomenon in Experiment 1, finding an equivalent modality effect for associative (DRM) lists and categorized lists. Because conscious generationand subsequent monitoring of related lures during study is infrequent for categorized lists, this result is inconsistent with the idea that the modality effect is due to a study-based monitoring process. An alternative explanation is that visual study impairs relational processing relative to auditory study, which could cause a modality effect by lowering false recognition of related lures. We tested this idea in Experiment 2, by switching to a meaning-based test that is sensitive only to the retrieval of relational information. A modality effect was not obtained for either type of list on this test. The results from both experiments were predicted by a test-based monitoring account, rather than by the study-based monitoring or relational processing accounts.